Lights out for 28 March 2009

I think most of you know that we are going to show the global warming awareness and switch off the light by 28 March 2009, 8:30PM for 1 hour. This will involved KL and I am living in Selangor, I will follow the programmed to close my lights during that period as well.

Now the main concern will be down to iconic landmarks in KL like KLCC, KL tower. Will they off their light as well. There are still 11 days to awareness program. I hope they can really follow as this is a good example for everyone to save the planet.

So, remember to switch off your light on 28 March 2009, 8:30PM. For more information, please seek from the website. http://www.earthhour.org/.

Cactus point @ Cameron Highland

Cactus point can be found beside the road from Tanah Rata to Brinchang. There are a lot of flowers, plant and of course the main course is cactus. Cactus is selling at there cheap, planting accessories can be found at there as well.

Some of the big cactus is not for sell. You only can manage to capture some picture for memories. Friends of mine like cactus so much and she ask me to buy her some as souvenir for her. This is the second time I bought for her. But most of the time she will complain that she already got it. So, if you are a cactus collector, make yourself to Cameron and choose yourself to avoid same kind of cactus in your collection.

If you like planting, make sure you grab some from Cameron Highland because they really take good care of the plant. I got grab some Plants and cactus from the shop and put it at my balcony. Some expert advice can be getting from the promoter there.

Here is some Picture I post together that I took from the cactus point for view and make my blog look colorful abits.

Strawberry farm

Strawberry farm is one of the interesting places we went to for the Cameron Highlands trip. My sister is a strawberry lover and she was very excited to see fresh strawberries to be plucked by ourselves in the farm. She loves strawberries so much and has eaten for few boxes during our stay in the Cameron Highlands.

Strawberry Farm

Strawberry farm is a must for strawberry lovers and you can enjoy cheap and yet fresh strawberries. And gifts like strawberry umbrellas, key chains, caps can be a good souvenir for friends. You can also find those gifts selling everywhere in Cameron Highlands.

Strawberry la

Apart from only strawberries, there is dried food produced from strawberry which is good attraction as well, for example strawberry ice cream. They dried strawberry with honey to make money strawberry which I feel very delicious to eat.

I don’t really enjoy strawberry, but I did have some during the trip.

‘BOH’ Tea Centre @ Sungai Palas, Cameron Highland

There are few tea farms in Cameron highland, we only manage to go for the one nearer to Berinchang because of the rain. The tea centre is located at Sungai Palas.

Tea Centre @ Sungai Palas

You need to drive for like 20 minutes from the foot of the hill to the middle of the tea farm and to reach the tea centre. I like the idea of the farm design as we can take a fresh breathe alongside the tea farm and enjoy the natural scenery.

Tea Factory

Tea farm is one of the must-visit places in Cameron Highlands. You can pay a visit to the tea factory there. There is also a multimedia room for visitors to see a short documentary of tea processing and the history of tea factory. After that you can also pay a visit to the factory and to see how they process tea in real life.

Gift Shop

There is a great gift and tea products shop inside the tea centre. You may find it on the way to the tea factory. You can see lots of packaged tea products and some gifts specially made representing the tea farm. I managed to find imported coffee during my last visit, but this time. Now, there are only BOH tea products.

Tea'Ria café

Not to miss the favorite spot of mine: the Tea'Ria Café. It’s actually located at the front part, but normally people will pay a full visit of the centre then get back to the tea café to have some good taste of tea and cakes.

full tea'Ria café view

The Tea'Ria café is partitioned into indoor and outdoor areas. Naturally, the strategic spots outside at the balcony are normally hard to get. When we were there, the cold weather forced people to sit inside rather than getting frozen outside. We tried to sit outside and acted hero, but ended up surrendering to the weather and hide back inside the café.

Tea Farm

So, I strongly recommend tea Centre at Sungai Palas as a must-visit in Cameron Highlands.

Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands is one of the tourism spots in Malaysia. What are the interesting places you can find in Cameron? If you are people who like entertainment places like disco and pub, Cameron Highlands might not be a good place for you, because there are only natural places like bee farm, tea farm and strawberry farm to visit.

For me, Cameron Highlands is highly recommended for family trip, if you want to bring your parents to somewhere quiet and with windy weather. And the activity for dinner that cannot be missed is steamboat session because of the cold weather. Cameron Highlands is full of places where people plant vegetables. So you can just easily get fresh vegetable for steamboat.

Strawberry farm is a must for strawberry lovers and you can enjoy cheap and yet fresh strawberries. Tea farm will be must-not-miss sport if you’re visiting Cameron Highlands. BOH tea is produced from Cameron Highlands and you can purchase all sorts of BOH tea after the visit.


Along the roadside of Berinchang, you can see lots of stalls selling vegetables and strawberries. Some unique souvenirs like hot cakes and strawberry umbrellas.


Bees can produce lots of honey. Nowadays people keep talking about natural and healthy ingredient for food. You can pay a visit to the bee farm and get a pure honey which is collocated by bees from the bee farm.

I did enjoy my weekend in Cameron Highlands, hope you all will enjoy too!

ASW 2020 - One billion new units

Today Post office rocked by the subcription of ASW 2020. There are additional one billion units opened for subcription. Please see news below for details:

KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd (ASNB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), yesterday opened for subscription one billion new units of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020).
To ensure fair distribution to the investing public, a maximum limit of 10,000 units has been set per account holder during the offer period ending Dec 3.
The maximum investment limit would be void after the offer period, it said in a statement.
With the additional units, the fund size of ASW 2020 would increase to 10.42 billion units.
ASW 2020 was launched on Aug 28, 1996, with an initial fund size of three billion units.
ASW 2020 is a fixed priced unit trust open to all Malaysians aged six months and above, subject to a quota of 51% for bumiputras and 49% for non-bumiputras.

-The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), has announced one billion additional new units of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, to be opened for subscription beginning tomorrow.
To ensure a fair distribution, the public can only invest up to 10,000 units per account holder between tomorrow and next Wednesday. The maximum investment limit will be void after the offer period.
Transactions will begin at 8am at all 10 ASNB full operation offices nationwide. Unit holders can also subscribe to the new units at the 1,627 ASNB agents’ branches nationwide, subject to their operating hours.
ASW 2020 is a fixed-priced equity fund open to all Malaysians aged six months and above. It is also subject to a quota of 51 per cent for Bumiputera and 49 per cent for non-Bumiputeras.
Investors can also invest in the ASW 2020 using the Employees Provident Fund member’s scheme.
Launched 12 years ago, the fund will grow from initial three billion units to 10.42 billion units after tomorrow.
ASW 2020 created a record when the non-Bumiputera subscription quota was fully subscribed in 27 minutes when one billion new additional units were launched on Sept 1, 2006.

-NST

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 (Bernama) — Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), is offering one billion additional new units of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW 2020) to be opened for subscription beginning Thursday.
PNB president and chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said to ensure a fair distribution to the investing public, a maximum investment limit of 10,000 units has been set per account holder during the offer period from Nov 27 to Dec 3.
“The maximum investment will be void after the offer period,” he said in a press conference at PNB headquarters recently.
Hamad said transactions of the new ASW 2020 units will begin at 8.00 am at all ten ASNB full operation offices nationwide. He said unit holders could also subscribe to the new ASW 2020 units at the 1,627 ASNB agents’ branches nationwide subject to their operating hours.
With these additional units, the fund size of ASW 2020 will increase to 10.42 billion units compared to 9.42 billion units currently.
ASW 2020 was launched on Aug 28, 1996, with an initial fund size of three billion units. ASW 2020 is a fixed priced unit trust fund open to all Malaysians aged six months and above subject to a quota of 51 percent for Bumiputera and 49 percent for non-Bumiputera.
“Investors can also invest in the ASW 2020 using the Employees Provident Fund Member’s Scheme,” Hamad said.
Since its launch, the average income distribution for the ASW 2020 fund has been 7.74 sen per unit, he added.
– BERNAMA

ASW can be said a very stable investment option and return rate is much better than FD which 7% This year. for more information about this product, please click on link below:
http://www.asnb.com.my/english/asw.htm.

Skytrex Adventure @Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam

Skytrekking was fun! It was so fun till I can’t wait for the extreme challenge to be ready.

I’ve made the booking 2 weeks before, and the only time slot left is 2.30pm (gosh, must be hot hot hot, I was thinking). But still I took it. We have 8 of us, 4 guys and 4 gals, all departing from PJ.

Skytrex Adventure is located at the Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam. We took a free shuttle bus from the entrance to where the Skytrex Adventure actually takes place. It was just a mere 5 minutes ride. Along the ride, we were showered with fresh air…

shuttle bus to skytrex

Once we got there, we went straight to the counter and to register. We were not asked to pay upfront. You’ll only have to pay after finishing the challenge. Each of us got the equipments, a locker and a pair of gloves (RM1 per rent). The instructors were there to equip us.

Equipment for rent

helping hand

One of the instructors gave us a briefing and demo on using the equipments (the hooks), safety and some “flying” tips. We started right after the briefing. And because we were the smaller group (there was a 15 person group with us), we got the start first (lucky us…)

I am ready !!

All together there were 25 challenges (according to their website, cos I’d actually lost count half way thru the challenge), and we started with climbing a 17 meter long tree stairs (it was tiring). Then we crossed a zigzag trek (it was so high up, that I couldn’t see the ground.. and I did chicken abit there. I just kept telling myself, don’t look down and don’t think about it…).

The challenge start from here

The challenge that I hated to most must be the hanging tubes. The distance was short, but it seemed so hard. The instructor kept telling us to step a feet at 1 tube at a time. But the tubes kept swinging, forth and back, left and right, which we couldn’t really step on them. After struggling for a few moments, all of us managed to walk thru (yoo hoo!)

Spiderman

Then it came this tarzan swing. This I must say was the hardest for me. We were supposed to swing with a rope, step on a plank, and catch the next rope with the other hand. But, I just couldn’t reach the plank. I couldn’t recall how much time I spent there, but it was definitely long… but well, I din chicken out thou :P

There were several chicken exits throughout the challenges, but none of us did chicken out. Hooray!

After about 2 hours of the fun time, finally we got to the end exit. All of us got wet cos it just started raining right before we got the exit. But still we enjoyed it pretty much.

I must say Skytrekking is really awesome and we really had a great time there! And there’ll be an extreme challenge ready sometime in March next year. We are so looking forward to that!!

Long holiday in December

Starting from 6th December to 14th December, there will be a long holiday for me because of lesser order from our customers. My company needs to shut down for a week. This is also a good time for me to take leaves and enjoy trips with my family.

This is actually the first trip for my parents after my mom recovering from her long illness and the last trip was last year for my sister's convocation. That was around June 2007.

We plan for lots of activities for this week; 6th December we are going to Cameron for a whole family trip. Since my mom has never been there and my brother managed to get an apartment in Cameron even at the super peak period. We will enjoy a full 3 days 2 nights retreat there. Next, my parents will be coming to KL and stay with me until 14th December.

For that week, I will be bz bringing them visit our relatives and meet up with their old friends to have a long nice chat. That’s what they dream of. And we are heading Genting on the 11th December as my father likes to try his luck, alot. :D And he seldom go uphill actually. For them, Genting is a must if want to stay in KL. Hahahaha..

They will be going back on Sunday, and my mom keeps telling me that this is their first time taking flight. I think I shouldn’t tell them early as my mom will keep excited and cannot sleep until the day. Hahahaha..

During that period, I will bring them to Batu Caves one day or maybe Kuala Selangor. This is all things to be decided by them.

I am quite excited with this holiday, hope we can really enjoy it.

Stupid 10% toll discount for highways

10% toll discount for using highways from midnight to 7am starting from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2010. We Malaysian been struggling from paying a high fee of toll and now they decide to give discount on only midnight to 7AM?

For my opinion, this is not a good idea. Just imagine people who travel and reach Ipoh toll by 11:55PM. They will wait at beside of the road for the time to reach 12AM. Means that the road will congest with cars and accident might happen because of this.

Another thing is the discount only start by midnight means that there will be more people driving during midnight to 7AM. This will get people to force themselves driving and might increase chances of getting unnecessary accident like fall a sleep when driving.

And people who force themselves to make it get the discount they will try to speed up the time to make in before 7AM. Means speeding problem will be more along the highways for discount period.

If really want to give out discount, why not just generously give up 10% all day long? And don’t make people choose they time of travel?

But after all, this is really something better than nothing for Malaysian who always using highway like me.

Recession impact

People around the world been worried about the recession and how big the impact my company got as a local company in Malaysia. My company is doing semiconductor and a listed company in Malaysia. This recession is hitting my company badly as my company starting to cut on the production cost in order to survive from this recession.

Last month was still ok as customer still put lots of order from us, but this month and coming December month will be dropping 30% order and management started to panic about the over production cost versus income.

This month management instructed all section managers to control Over Time in all area and they even come out with 0 OT email announcement to all officer in my company. When come to less order, company shut down will be necessary to cut cost and then follow by cut headcount. And worst to worst, jobless people are increasing and impact economy in this country as well.

As people are looking at this situation is as bad as 1997 now and government still very optimize about it, but I am not sure what their reference about the impact of recession is. No more joke as I can see it myself in my company.

Broadband service still suck

In Malaysia, most of the people have been struggling with the low speed of the broadband provided by service provider. And until today we still not up to the global standard as many countries can provide higher speed than Malaysia.

The Internet is a modern trend. This step in technology has enabled countless people to communicate, to trade and to learn more effectively than ever before. But people still counting on some better offer of broadband service provider to give them less headache broadband service.

As per now, I think TM been monopolize the broadband market but still uncertain with the service provided. And the slow of the technology enhancement on the broadband service still a main concern of today’s consumer.

For other service provider, please speed up the development and make our life better. We are hoping for better future of technology in Malaysia.

Should we cut EPF contribution?

LOWERING the rate of employees’ contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) temporarily is part of the Government’s bag of tricks to rouse the economy. With lower the rate, people will have more money to spend.

But the main thing that people concern is how much is your EPF will be when you retire?
Can your EPF funds generate enough income for you when you retired? How much else needed if your EPF is not enough?

The EPF interest fluctuates between 4 and 6, if you are lucky this year which government doing well with your money. You can get 6%. Else you will get 4% which not much difference from Fix Deposit.

Assume that you have 50K in your EPF by your age of 30 and you are earning 54K a year. With 23% of contribution of your salary might go to EPF. That means that you will get RM 12420 by end of the year. Plus 6% interest is 13165.

We assume that you are getting 5-10% increment of your salary by end of the year, this is base on normal increment rate. I think you can get about RM 500K by your age of 55 years old. Is this enough for you to retain your living cost after retiring?

With government is implementing the new rate, I think for some people they prefer to take out their money in EPF to invest in other places like stock market by next year.

For those who think that you are not satisfied with EPF savings, you should cut the contribution and start some investment now to gain more fund for your old age living, but bare in mind that investment have their own risk yeah.


With government cut down member contribution to 8%, you can have extra money to invest by next year, but final decision will be on you to cut or not to cut the contribution.

Malaysia is not in financial crisis?

This maybe a big question mark for Malaysians today as they realize that the global financial crisis is hitting badly the European countries and as we know it will indirectly hit the Asian markets as well.
Today, government of Malaysia has just announced that our country is not one the countries shaken by the financial crisis. Hmm… Is that true?

Many of us who live in Malaysia are not quite sure of how bad we are hit by the global financial crisis and some people are still optimistic over our current situation and are still betting on the share market and hope that the market will rebound soon and earn some $$$ from that.

From my point of view, I am not sure how bad is the global financial crisis hitting our country but Malaysia economy is definitely in crisis. You can see people trying to cut their spending and you can see this when you hang out at those famous shopping malls in town.

Share markets are insecure because of the news going around and government are trying to make people calm by slowing down falling speed. I think this is a sign of the instability of economy in Malaysia.

I can see people worry about the future of the country situation and some of them think rise of the petrol price is one of the main factors that make Malaysia in this crisis.

Maybe I am wrong about the situation. So, what you think??

Duck herbal soup & noodle in Pun chun restaurant, Bidor

On the way to Cameron, we dropped by Bidor for our breakfast plus lunch. And we went to the famous duck herbal soup restaurant to taste the best duck soup in bidor town. the place are cowded and they do serve nice food.

Restaurant Pun Chun

We seat down and serve for only duck herbal soup. You can choose for way of noodle serve like soup type or dry type. I chosen dry type as I enjoy it very much.

We sit for around 15 minutes and the “special one” duck drumstick soup been served. It’s very healthy to drink this soup as don’t get it too much, because after you drink you will feel the heat is coming and buring feeling down your throat.

Duck Herbal Soup

I think this place is good to try when you plan to go Cameron highland from PJ. Please drop by Bidor to taste it.

Cameron highland

Saturday was my birthday and I went to Cameron highland and that was my first visit to the highland. I am quite happy with my birthday celebration that arranged by my girl friend. Thank you.

We happen to take off from PJ by 8 am and stop by Bidor for our breakfast plus lunch at around 9:30 AM in Pun Chun Chicken biscuits & restaurant Sdn. Bhd. We stop there to have their most famous ducks herb soup noodles. After the short lunch we continue with my journey to Cameron and reach Cameron at around 1pm where we stop by lots of stop to see some side seeing place which have water fall.

We went to shop for some plants, flowers and vegetable and we prepared steamboat for our dinner after the shopping. And there are some surprise party happen there for my birthday and thank you for all my friends who keep sending me wishes for my birthday. I am very happy with that even I am one year older now.

I think this was a quite existing trip I had at Cameron as this is my first to there. I think I would recommend to my friend in my future and might go to there again by end of the year.

Public Transport rocks PJ

From the head line from thestar.com.my, it stated that the PETALING JAYA: More than one million Klang Valley residents will benefit from the much awaited new Kota Damansara-Cheras rail transit line. This news is going to rock Petaling Jaya residence again as they can enjoy not to drive when going to town with the LRT station near their living places.

For this Kota Damansara-Cheras rail line, the Government had earlier said the new line and extensions should be ready by 2012. Sources said with the average construction period taking three to four years, work would have to start by the end of this year. I am quite excited with this news as I am staying at Petaling Jaya and I think I am quite happy with the development with Petaling Jaya area. People are starting to invest in PJ area as you can see lots of residence areas are being developed and still more to come.

This Railway is going to be a convenience public transport for PJ people to get down to KL area. I think after 5-10 years, PJ is going to crowded with public transport and people are thinking of moving to stay at here more than other places. I am great that I am living in PJ.

Motorists get their rebates

Yesterday was a busy day for motorists to get their fuel rebate at post office throughout the country. They started lined up by 7am. I was in Kelana Jaya Post office, and think of get my rebates as well. But after look at the queue, I decided not to get by last night.

From the star newspaper, I saw some news regarding to the claim and some are not even get the claim as their name if not in JPJ system. But how can these happen if they are already renewed their road tax? Most of the people are happy with the rebates and government even post up a calculation for the petrol price hike impact as motorist are only pay little bit more compared to before petrol price raise if they get the rebates.

From reaction of the petrol hike this time, government really act fast to help the situation, I think the petrol price is already become a must from now on, since the rebates is already cashed out. I better get my claim as well.

Petrol hike, news of the year

1 week after petrol price raised, people still put this issue as the main issue for the year. In a day I received like 2 forwarded email about petrol. I just got one for how to pump petrol to get the maximum petrol with the money you put. Save petrol, don't use petrol, replace petrol with water.

Some even forward an email content CEO of some company CEO come out with an idea to not pump Petrol at only 1 particular brand and force the petrol price down to like last time. Is that the actual way to make petrol price go down?

I even receive some junk mail about how to save money by using water to run your car. This topic can be running for few months from now. I think one day people will really give up on petrol price raise and stop from driving again. This situation will last for few months to go and I don't think people will sit back and see the raise without action. There are going to be big action from people who surfer from petrol hike.

Will see what is going on soon.

Free water from June

Selangor residents will get to enjoy the first 20 cubic meters of water free after all from June now that the state government has agreed to conditions set by water concessionaire Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd. I think this is good news for all the residents with high usage of water.

This new charges might not take any effect on people who use less water daily. Back to the tariff, the first 20 cubic meters charges is RM0.57 per CUM. Like me, I am using not more than 20 Cubic Meters per month and end up I need to pay minimum charges of RM6 per month. This is already 3 months in the rows I had been paying the same amount as my water usage for daily activities is very less and don’t even reach 20 CUM.

With free water for first 20 cubic meters means that I can enjoy RM0 per month from June? Or I still need to pay the minimum charges for processing fees? Another concern is for people who use less water might think this is not fair for them and they might start to practice more water usage. And end up with more water wastage.

So, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd needs to disable the minimum charges if they want to make people practice and save more water from wastage.

Airasia Mega sales

AirAsia has returned with great promotions for 250,000 seats up for grabs with fares from as low as RM1 to domestic and regional destinations in line with the Mega Sale Carnival 2008. From Kuala Lumpur to destinations in Peninsular Malaysia the fares is as low as RM1 are for one-way. One-way tickets to certain destinations in Sabah and Sarawak and Southeast Asia are priced at RM20.

This is going to be a boost for people who headache for petrol price raise and need to think twice when think about going back to home town to meet their parents.

For people who need to travel when festive session can start to book from today with only RM1 one way. I will start to book some as well as I think taking flight is cheaper than taking bus and own transports.